Key clustering: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:17, 20 July 2017

Revision as of 09:18, 20 July 2017

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If an attacker tries to break a cipher by a [[brute-force attack]], trying all possible keys until it finds the correct key, key clustering makes it easier to attack a particular cipher text. If there are ''n'' possible keys without any key clustering, the attacker needs to try an average of ''n''/2 keys to decrypt it and no more than ''n'' keys. If there are two keys that are clustered, the average number of keys is reduced to ''n''/4 and the maximum is ''n''-1 keys. If three keys cluster, the average attempt is only ''n''/6 attempts.

==References==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Key management]]

{{crypto-stub}}